


Of rallies, drunks and girls

by Rsjessen



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Denial, Denial of Feelings, Drinking, F/M, Jealousy, M/M, Politics, Rallies, Revolution, Smoking, also, but i wont say yet, i dunno, ok, revolutionary Enjolras, who is that girl, yes i do, you can guess though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-24
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 09:59:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/772910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rsjessen/pseuds/Rsjessen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enjolras didn't actually know very much about Grantaire, and most of what he knew was trivial at best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One - The Rally

**Author's Note:**

> A special thanks to both Hexele, who not only prompted the idea of this fic to me but also helped me along the way, and also missjonesforgishwhe who graciously insisted that she could look through the fic, and help me out with the different kinks and ideas I had for it.
> 
> Both can be found on tumblr under the names used above. If you want to follow me on tumblr, I am nerdishparadise dot tumblr dot com
> 
> Enjoy the story!

Enjolras didn't actually know very much about Grantaire, and most of what he knew was trivial at best.

He knew that Grantaire and Eponine were in fact not dating, but he preferred not to talk about how this assumption had been disproved (he could still remember the mocking laughter that followed him out of the room, after he had discovered Eponine making out with a man in the back of Les Musain and he had confronted her about this, asking "what about Grantaire?")

Grantaire had a habit of calling him Apollo, yet he didn't know why and when he would ask the other man, he would simply smile a bitter smile and retort: "Because everybody thinks the sun shines out of your arse, so it seemed fitting!"

He also knew that Grantaire smoked, liked his coffee black (with a squirt of brandy in it, when he thought nobody was looking), and that the man either painted every day, or at least didn't shower as much as a regular person would.

He was often covered in splatters of paint, that Enjolras did not find himself staring at nor getting distracted by when the barista took off his uniform after a shift, nor when he handed him over Enjolras' coffee (plain black, no brandy, no sugar) with that insufferable grin.

One night, after a particular long meeting, Grantaire had gotten really drunk and somehow he had ended up in the other end of town, getting a tattoo on his shoulder blade at four o'clock in the morning – and really, why would a tattoo parlor even be open that late? – That said: "I drink to make other people more interesting."

This was also how Enjolras knew that Grantaire was not stupid, he simply made idiotic choices. Because if you are drunk enough to get a tattoo at four in the morning, yet still able to quote Hemingway from memory you've got to at least have some knowledge beyond which brand of whiskey is the best, and which pop singer sang which song.

This was probably why Enjolras hadn't thrown Grantaire out of the group yet. That, and they couldn't really afford to lose any members, and if Grantaire left, so did Eponine, and even if Grantaire was more drunk than not most of the time, he did have a point every once in a while, in between all of the cynicism, much as Enjolras loathed to admit it.

But just because Enjolras somewhat valued Grantaire's opinion, didn't mean he actually liked the guy.

And he didn't actually invite him to the rally per say. He had invited Eponine, and Grantaire had been standing just there, next to her, so of course Enjolras had to invite him, it was the only decent thing to do.

Of course, just because he hadn't actually wanted Grantaire at the rally, didn't mean that he didn't harbor a vain hope that he would show up, and hopefully, be on his best behavior.

Enjolras had climbed a tree and was now screaming his lungs out, rally the people around him. The turnout was big, and even though l'ABC didn't actually have anything to do with the rally – beyond attending it – Enjolras soon found himself at the center of the protest.

They were protesting against a local factory being shut down, because of government cuts, leaving thousands of people, families, suddenly without income. And not only this, the workers had been shamed, their notices and benefits stripped away, leaving them with nothing, not even the money they were originally entitled to get if they were fired.

Enjolras knew Grantaire didn't really care about this. He knew that the cynic would claim to have seen it coming a mile away, deeming it as another proof of how humanity failed in every aspect, and there were no decent human-beings left in the world. ("Except for you, of course dear Apollo, but you aren't really a proper human anyway, are you?")

So it was a surprise to suddenly see the now-familiar dark curls and cheeky grin among the rather large crowd that had gathered around the tree Enjolras was currently occupying, yelling out his inner rage about the system, and societies' flaws. His words faltered for a moment, short enough that the general crowd didn't notice, long enough that his friends did.

In the end, when he was finally pulled down from the tree by police currently on stand-by, - "you! Get down from there!" - it was him who approached Grantaire.

"You came," he tried to keep the surprise out of his voice, but Grantaire always seemed to hear everything he wanted to hide, so he knew that it was a lost cause already.

"Of course I did, Apollo," his eyes were glazed and Enjolras knew that he was drunk, "don't I always?"

"You're drunk," it was a statement not a question, Grantaire knew this and didn't answer, opting instead to throw the revolutionary a bitter smile.

"You shouldn't have come at all, we don't have any use for you, especially when you are like this," Enjolras' words were harsh, but Grantaire had no time to reply before a young girl came up behind him, a kind smile on her face as she laced their arms together.

"R?" she asked, for a moment glancing between the two men, sensing the tension, "you alright? Did you find who you were looking for?"

She paused for a moment, her eyes full of concern as she looked at Grantaire,

"Are you alright?"

Enjolras watched as Grantaire extracted his arm for the girl's grip and instead laced their fingers together, sending her a smile much kinder and more real than anything Enjolras had ever seen on the cynic's lips. He ignored the feeling of his stomach knotting itself together as Grantaire answered her with kind words:

"I'm fine Henriette, just catching up with an old friend."

Enjolras stopped himself from retorting that he was not Grantaire's friend, when the girl looked at him with a bright smile on her pretty face.

And she was indeed very pretty. Young and fresh-faced with dark brown hair, heart-shaped lips and blue eyes. She wore make up, but not so much that it was distracting, she simply highlighted the beauty that was already there. And for a moment Enjolras hated her. He most certainly didn't trust he, she was clearly up to no good.

He considered warning Grantaire somehow, perhaps pulling him aside under the lure of having to speak with him about l'ABC business, but latent anger over Grantaire showing up late and drunk, kept him from doing so.

Instead, Enjolras' decide to shove the feeling away, he had gotten quite good at doing that with the more useless feelings throughout the years, and shook the girl's hand.

"Enjolras,"

Her smile seemed almost knowing now.

"Henriette, pleased to meet you."

He answered with a curt, 'likewise', and quickly let go of her hand, instead turning his attention back to Grantaire.

"Meeting tomorrow at seven, be there," he paused for a second to collect himself, desperately trying to ignore how his hands felt clammy and his heart was speeding up – this was surely a result of the rally -, and pointedly ignoring the bemused looks that the woman in front of him was sending him, "and please, try and be sober, for once."

"Your wish is my command," Grantaire answered and Henriette laughed, a clear and beautiful sound like music, and there was diffidently something shady about her, Enjolras was certain.

"Good," Enjolras gave a quick nod and turned to leave, "tomorrow then."

As he walked away, he heard the pleasing sound of Henriette's voice as she called out to him, ("yes, we'll see you tomorrow, Enjolras!"), and he almost turned around to tell her that she was not invited. But he didn't, because Combeferre would kill him if he knew he had turned away a potential member, and besides, he had a rally to attend.


	2. Of nihilism, misanthropes and laughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t bother Apollo, it’s no problem at all” Enjolras wasn’t sure if he was imagining or not that Grantaire’s smile seemed a bit strained, even if his tone was cheery, “the cause comes first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this lying about for ages, but I've never gotten quite satisfied with it, so I haven't posted it. As it is now, I've given up on becoming completely satisfied with this chapter and opted to just post it.

If it wasn't for Courfeyrac's sparkling smile and all-too-knowing eyes glued to Enjolras the moment she entered the café, Enjolras may have had something to say about Henriette showing up at the café to sit in on one of their meetings, even if she had in fact told him she would do so, the day at the rally.

Enjolras couldn't actually deny the fact that she seemed like a really nice girl, and at least she looked interested in what he had to say, even if she did spend much of the time shooting Grantaire secret smiles while the cynic worked behind the café-counter.

A small part of him still thought she was up to no good – how could she not be, hanging around with people like Grantaire? – But Enjolras thwarted that part in favour of swaying the room (that didn't really need much swaying at all) to his side of the cause.

"It's unacceptable that there are still people out there still struggling to afford the base needs! Still living day by day wondering here their next meal will come from, when their next paycheck or money in any semblance of the form will arrive!" Enjolras paused for breath, the paper he had written the speech on long forgotten, "the people don't steal because they want to they steal because they have to, because they have no other choice!"

He empathized this by banging his fist onto the table in front of him, causing a roll of agreements to slide from mouths of the Amis. It seemed, however, that the positive assessments were not shared by their resident drunk, who let out a rather obnoxiously large snort and turned his back to the meeting instead.

"Grantaire? You seem to have something you wish to share with the rest of the group?" Enjolras never could let things slide when it came to Grantaire.

The disagreement didn't come as a surprise to him; it had seemed that from the very first time that they met, the dark-haired male had made it his life-mission to argue Enjolras at every turn. By now Enjolras had gotten used to it, had even come to expect it, but that did not make it rile him up any less.

The Barista took a moment before replying and god if Enjolras didn't want to knock that self-satisfied smirk off his stupid face;

"I don't know Apollo, do I?"

Grantaire let out another huff of air, sliding his fingers through his thick curls, "I think you are being a little ignorant if you honestly think the majority of people steal 'because they have no other choice'."

He chuckled before he continued: "what about stealing for the thrill of it? Because your friends dared you? Because you are bored? Because you are a bastard? Because you like it."

Enjolras walked towards the counter, leaning over it so his and Grantaire's faces were separated by only a couple inches, and spoke in a cold tone:

"Simply because you are a depressed nihilist who has given up on humanity, does not mean that what you see is the truth!"

"Misanthrope."

Henriette's light voice carried through their impending argument, and even without looking Enjolras knew that the rest of the room had turned their attention towards her with frightened eyes. It was an unspoken agreement that the rest of the group never got involved in any Enjolras and Grantaire's many fights, in fear of having the wraths of either of them, turned towards themselves instead.

"Excuse me?"

The stare Enjolras fixed upon the female, had made many people flee for their life, yet it didn't seem to faze Henriette much. Instead she sent a rather confused look over Enjolras' shoulder – to look at Grantaire, he assumed – and continued what she had been saying:

"'Taire's a Misanthrope, not a Nihilist... I mean, do you even know what a Nihilist is?"

Enjolras took a moment to be offended that this girl dared question his knowledge, but instead opted for simply raising an eyebrow, and keeping his glared fixed on her.

"Well then you should know. 'Taire's never been a Nihilist; he has no faith in humanity, not 'no faith at all.'"

"What-"Enjolras would never admit that he gaped at this moment, no matter how much Bahorel later insisted on it, "What do you know about this? Who do you think are, to think that you know him better than us?"

The silence in the room that followed his question stunned Enjolras; he had honestly hoped or rather expected that at least some of the Amis would agree with him. That they also thought that this stranger, this random girl, had no right to waltz in and simply claim to know Grantaire better than they did. They were his comrades, his group, who was did she think she was, sitting there on that chair and claim that h-they didn't know "'Taire" as well as she did?

But instead of agreement, he had met with silence. A silence that, after a breath, was filled with heart-warming laughter, which had Enjolras once again turning on his heels and fixing his attention on the Barista, who was now bend over clutching the edge of the bar, his shoulder shaking with laughter.

"What."

"Dude, she's my sister! I'm pretty sure she knows me better than anyone in this room. Even me!"

At this point the rest of the room joined in the laughter, except Eponine who took the moment to yell out an offended 'hey!' at the claim that someone knew Grantaire better than her, which Grantaire responded to by winking at her.

"You never told me you had a sister."

The art-student shrugged, a smirk gracing his lips as a trace of the laughter that had been there moments ago.

"I thought you knew, not as if I've kept her a secret."

Enjolras turned towards the rest of the group, whom all quickly confirmed what Grantaire had said by nodding, Combeferre quickly assured Enjolras by stating that: "you are often so busy with your causes; you kind of forget to listen to anything else, it's ok. We don't blame you." This did nothing to soothe the quickly spreading guilt that had taken Enjolras' insides hostage.

"Grantaire I'm-"

"Don't bother Apollo, it's no problem at all" Enjolras wasn't sure if he was imagining or not that Grantaire's smile seemed a bit strained, even if his tone was cheery, "the cause comes first."

He couldn't deny it, because the cause did come first to him, and it always would. Everybody knew that. So instead, Enjolras decided to simply nod and quickly walked back to his table to gather his things together.

"I think that's quite enough for tonight, I'll see you all tomorrow at Courfeyrac's place, straight after the last lessons ring out."

As soon as he'd swung his, now heavy and filled to the brim, backpack over his shoulder, Enjolras walked rather briskly out of the café, trying in vain to convince himself that he wasn't running from anything.

And especially not anything to do with Grantaire.


End file.
